Author: The enConnected Team

There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the gaming powerhouse known as the Xbox 360 is also one of the bestselling home entertainment device available today. Just in case you needed a reminder, Microsoft has some quick stats on the subject, along with a few glimpses of what a dual focused Xbox LIVE entertainment service might offer for consumers.

During The Wall Street Journal’s D: Dive Into Media event, Interactive Entertainment Business chief Yusuf Mehdi, talked up some of Microsoft’s latest usage data for Xbox LIVE. While there’s not much in the way of details, Mehdi does offer up a few interesting tidbits including the revelation that the average Xbox 360 is now used 87 hours per month, with the majority of the time now being spent enjoying the various entertainment services now available to Xbox LIVE users.

While we’re on the subject of Xbox LIVE users, some 51 percent of them have children, a statistic we know is very important to Microsoft as entertainment and digital media president Nancy Tellem spent most of her time at the event talking up the company’s plans to produce interactive content geared “at the younger demographic”. The company has already taken its first steps toward this, it began offering Kinect Sesame Street just this past fall. When asked about whether users would get to feast their eyes on this new interactive content this year Tellem, only offered a vague “I’m Hoping”.

According to both Mehdi and Tellem, Microsoft won’t attempt to compete with traditional video providers like cable and satellite operators. Instead the plan is to partner with these outlets instead.

Looking to check out some of your favorite artists music videos and Twitter messages on Windows Phone? Apparently Microsoft has just thing.

The new feature, creatively called “buzz”, recently started appearing on the individual artist pages when browsed from a Windows Phone 8 device and includes auto generating links to recent videos featuring a particular artist hosted on YouTube, “in their own words” -a link to what that artist has recently posted on Twitter, and “friends into” -a link to all of the friends who’ve liked that same artist on Facebook.

As we’ve had no news from the Xbox Music Team on the new feature, nor any information on what other new things might be lurking there, we’re still gathering intelligence. Until then, Windows Phone 8 users should take this opportunity to check out the feature for themselves on their devices. Maybe The Social isn’t as dead as we thought it was?

Correction: According to third-party sources, we got this one wrong. It seems buzz has actually always existed in Windows Phone 8 but only surfaced for particular artists (though we’ve used our Windows Phone 8 devices since the November launch and never ran across the feature once -even when looking up Jay-Z and others previously.  We apologize.)

This morning Dell, one of the personal computing world’s biggest Windows vendors is going private with a little help from Microsoft itself.

Upon approval from the usual regulatory organizations and Dell’s shareholders Michael Dell will be partnering with Silverlake Partners in a $24.4 billion transaction that, according to the company will allow it to “continue to deliver the superior solutions, services and experiences that our customers have come to expect.”

Unfortunately, with no new and exciting product announcements made today, we’ll have to wait to see if this changes anything at all from a product pipeline or consumer interest perspective anytime soon. Still, if this helps improve their portfolio we’re not exactly opposed to it. Heck, this was written on a Dell Vostro V13.

The transaction should close by the end of Dell’s second quarter for Fiscal Year 2014.

Looking to fill that gaming-sized hole in your daily schedule? How about backfilling it with a few discounted Xbox LIVE Arcade titles on sale for this week only?

Until February 11th, Xbox LIVE Gold users can pick up Hydrophobia for 160 Microsoft Points ($2), Hybrid, Zeno Clash UE, and Earthworm Jim HD for 400 Microsoft Points each ($5). Additionally both Alan Wake’s American Nightmare and Orcs Must Die! for 600 Microsoft Points each ($7.50).

Looking to fill that gaming-sized hole in your daily schedule? How about backfilling it with a few discounted Xbox LIVE Arcade titles on sale for this week only?

Until February 11th, Xbox LIVE Gold users can pick up Hydrophobia for 160 Microsoft Points ($2), Hybrid, Zeno Clash UE, and Earthworm Jim HD for 400 Microsoft Points each ($5). Additionally both Alan Wake’s American Nightmare and Orcs Must Die! for 600 Microsoft Points each ($7.50).

Well confess, we’re not exactly coding wizards. So, when Chris Koenig’s WordPress Starter Kit for Windows Phone arrived on the scene a while back we jumped at the chance to use the framework to create presence for enConnected and by the look at his download number, we’d say so did a lot of developers. Unfortunately, many of those developers are likely stuck somewhere between a rock and a hard place as far as their derivative of the starter kit is concerned.

We’d noticed that long time friend of the site, Patrick Hefner’s application, ZuneNuze had suddenly stopped working right around the same time we couldn’t get our very own app using the framework off the ground, so we thought it couldn’t hurt to send Chris an email to get a status update on when developers might be able to expect an update.

“I would love to be able to update it, but I’m hoping that since the source is posted on GitHub, some wonderful open source developer would be willing to dive in and make the necessary updates.”

So, that’s not really good news from a short term perspective but, just like Chris we’re hopeful that some of you talented to WordPress enthusiasts will be able to give the WordPress powered Windows Phone community the technical fix it needs to resume facilitating delivery for content providers on the platform. What do you say?

There’s something about a political thriller. Only in this format can the intellectually inclined get their entertainment fix.  While watching other genres on the boob tube are all about acting and taking in nice visuals, in the case of House of Cards it’s all about the subtle nuances, -the cadence and potency in the dialogue and the ever complicated way in which Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) operates.

Let’s be clear, there are a few misses with its plot, particularly the way the show tends to flesh out any characters who don’t have their surname in the title cards. However, that’s simply to set the show’s contrast between the middle-of-the-road empty shirts that infest our national houses of power and the truly brilliant political operatives who must be out there somewhere.

Watch House of Cards. Watch it because the first episode is free. Watch it if for no other reason than you’ll experience the genre at its dizzying heights. Watch it because this is American television drama at its finest.

A few moments ago, I popped into the Windows Phone Store on my HTC 8X and noticed that the full Nokia Drive app is now available for non-Nokia phones. The app is currently one of the featured apps in the Windows Phone Store, but if you don’t see it, you can try searching for “Nokia Drive+ Beta” in the store. For the time being, at least, you can download and install the app for free.

According to Mary Jo Foley over on ZDNet, the app was actually released early last week. Apparently, it is only available to users in the US, UK or Canada.

I’ve only played with the app a little bit, but it seems to be pretty nicely done. I don’t know yet how the features will compare to those of the old Bing Maps application that came bundled with Windows Phone 7, but it definitely looks nicer and seems to have many features that weren’t found in the Maps app that came bundled with my HTC 8X.

The new app supports turn-by-turn navigation and is available to interact with location searches on your phone; two features that were noticeably missing from the bundled Maps app. It also includes the ability to switch between portrait and landscape modes. Also, once you set your destination, you have the option to enable or disable the following route items:

• Highways
• Toll roads
• Ferries
• Tunnels
• Unpaved roads
• Motorail trains

You can also specify whether you’d like the fastest route, the shortest route or the most economical route. Finally, you can even set the app to sound an alarm if you exceed the speed limit by too much. You can specify how much over the speed limit should set off the alarm, anywhere from 0 mph over to 18 mph over. The speed alarm is split into two separate settings, allowing you to set one alarm for areas with speed limits under 50 mph and a separate alarm for areas with speed limits over 50 mph.

Visually, the new app resembles the traditional GPS appearance much more than Google Maps, Bing Maps or Apple Maps by default. The app does allow you to switch between 3D (the default appearance) and 2D (a flatter looking map that more closely resembles the look of most other mapping apps).

Be sure to grab this app while it’s still free. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to switch over to the final version for free (keep in mind that this is considered a “beta”) once it’s released.

All in all, this app looks like a full-featured GPS. The only thing I really see missing from the new Nokia Drive+ Beta is the ability to monitor traffic. Hopefully that will be coming in a future version.

Just in case you weren’t already incredibly excited for tomorrow’s premiere of the new Netflix Original House of Cards, we’ve got some news for you. First, the show is going to be epic. Second, because of it’s premiere Microsoft and the House That Red Envelopes Built are opening up the application to any and all Xbox LIVE users.

From February 1st until February 3rd, all users with a valid Netflix subscriptions will be able to enjoy Netflix on Xbox for without the need for an Xbox LIVE Gold account via Netflix for Xbox LIVE  Now, we’re going to go out on a limb and say that everybody who’s anybody will be spending most of the weekend watching Kevin Spacey completely manipulate national politics to settle a score, but what do we know?

You’ve watched Windows Phone 8 users resize their Live Tiles. You’ve looked on in envy as the bright blue and white Windows Phone logo flashed during boots of devices like the Nokia Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8X. Soon, you lucky Lumia owner, you too will be able to get in on the action.

Starting today, Nokia has begun pushing the latest update to the Lumia 510, 610, 710, 800, and 900 owners. Although all owners will originally get their hands on the update, in typical Windows Phone fashion users will be prompted by their device to download the update in stages during the month of February.

In addition to the newly customizable Start Screen, users can also expect lock screen updating, wider language support, Internet sharing, Bluetooth sharing, and updates to Nokia exclusive apps like Play To and City Lens. It’s also worth noting that in true Windows Phone, and really anything that isn’t iPhone fashion, when you receive this update is entirely dependent on whether your carrier has approved the update. You can check your eligibility for the update manually from your Windows Phone’s “Phone Update”  screen in it’s settings.